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Before I go any further, I want to say thank you to Sarsm‘s husband for designing the challenge logo and that freaky snail you met yesterday. Having an identifying image was a great help.

First, some statistics of some of the tasks I completed:

Target: Write 1111 blog posts. Achieved: 2068. No surprise there because I didn’t think it through: counting jokes as posts (I still had to write, prepare and schedule them like ordinary posts), that removes 1001 immediately. All I needed was to write 110 posts in just under three years to succeed.

Target: Try three new foods. Achieved: 8. And I can’t remember any of them, which means I’m not still eating them, which kind of defeats the object of the exercise. Ah well.

Target: Write 1001 new poems.Achieved:1115. 114 over the odds!

Tasks I found both fun and useful:

Learn the names of the New Testament books as they appear.I have known the Old Testament books since I was a child; but I have to sing the list.

Learn the names of all twelve disciples.

Learn the names of all the Kings & Queens of England in chronological order.

Learn the names of all the American Presidents in chronological order.

Learning these lists has given me:

A party piece at last.

A great tool for dealing with the boredom of my daily dog walk.

An excellent distraction technique for anxiety.

A love of lists.

The task I really didn’t expect to complete:

Lose some weight. More than a little; less than a lot. I put it in to pad out the list. I’ve lost 11.5kgs/25.35316lbs. Chuffed! Never before has so much padding led to a lack of padding.

The easiest task:

Target: Watch 101 new films. Achieved:173. Easy! No wonder I didn’t get a job.

The toughest task.

Finding 1001 clean and funny jokes.

The completed task that was really a cheat:

Not play on King.com for a total of 101 days. Which I managed for 498 days. The point of the exercise was not to waste so much time at the computer. I played solitaire instead. Time wasted: lots.

The task I’m most pleased to have completed:

Finish editing SA Poems. I was thrilled to put together my first poetry collection, ready to submit to publishers. I might never have done it if I had not set it as a task.

The task I most enjoyed:

I couldn’t choose just one. I probably wouldn’t have done the first two without this challenge.

Have a go on every item in the new children’s play area in Gorsey Bank Park. [Refresh your memory here] I was giddy with excitement, just like a child. And then furious, because the Hub, instead of photographing the moment when I crashed to the ground from the spider web, rushed over to check if I was hurt.

Learn all the words to the South African National Anthem. Did I mention it’s in five languages?

Go to the theatre. Six months of birthday celebrations and four theatre visits, plus everything Spud starred in. Hooray!

Thank you, readers, for your encouragement and interest in this project. You kept me going.

And more thanks, this time for Sarsm herself, who talked me into doing this challenge. Although determined to finish some of the tasks, I always treated it as fun, and it has exposed me to activities I might never have done without her. Thank you x

Congratulations. That is a huge set of achievements, and I am envious of the weight loss and the work ready to send to publishers! You won’t need this now, because you know all your kings and queens. But this is how my kids learnt theirs :-D Have a great Christmas.

This Is Me:

I am a little fat. I like food; what can I say? I have dull hair: mousey. I don’t wear much make-up and have no need of a dressing table. If I look like a bag lady, I chose my own clothes. If I look nice, the Hub picked them for me. Despite all this, I am a little vain. This photograph is from 2003. I had to go back that far to find one of me that I liked. But I don’t really care: my husband still thinks I’m beautiful and if he doesn’t, he loves me enough to lie about it. I’m lucky. I have two boys. They never lie to me. Still, you can't have everything.

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